Silhouette of a Sparrow / Molly Beth GriffinThis book was recommended to me by a friend who stumbled upon it, and I hadn't otherwise heard about it, despite it fitting in quite nicely with The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which a lot of the blogs I read had absolutely raved about. Its timing, coming onto the scene in the springtime when people tend to be busier with other things, might have had something to do with it, but after reading it (and enjoying it immensely) I was surprised to have to do some digging to find reviews.

This isn't a particularly long book, and took me no more than a couple of long baths to finish, but it was absolutely lovely, and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a little bit mature in tone for much of the popular YA market, although that's also true of Cameron Post and certainly didn't detract from its impact once it found its niche. I wouldn't overlook it, though--for all that it's quiet and polite in many ways, it packs a punch in the girl-coming-of-age subset of realistic fiction that is, in my opinion, seriously underpopulated.

Reading Level: YA; the text isn't particularly complex, but the plot isn't especially fast-paced and requires some attention.Read-alikes: Silhouette of a Sparrow is a story about a young girl's coming-of-age in a historical setting. You might find similar stories in books likeThe Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth. Girl-coming-of-age stories set in modern times but with culturally anachronistic settings may also have a similar feel. Consider books such as Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts or Chasing Redbird and Walk Two Moons, among others,by Sharon Creech.